Remote-site servicing systems are well known in the art. Generally, they establish a communications connection to the remote site and then interrogate the remote site--be it a telecommunications system, a computer, or some other equipment--via the connection to perform maintenance and diagnostics thereon. An illustrative example of such a remote-site servicing system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,453.
Commonly, accessing of the remote site by the servicing system is triggered by a call to the servicing system made either by the remote system itself or by a caretaker or administrator of the remote system and reporting a problem with the remote system. This results in several inefficiencies. Firstly, two calls must be made: one to report the problem and the other to access the remote system. This means that two calls must be paid for, and that servicing of the remote site is delayed by the amount of time that it takes to establish the second call. Secondly, remote sites often do not have direct-inward-dialing links to their maintenance and diagnostics ports. So if the problem-reporting call is a voice call (e.g., from a caretaker or some other person to a service bureau technician or some other person) convoluted and time-consuming schemes must be employed to transfer both ends of the voice call to modems in order to establish a data connection between the remote site and the servicing system, followed by establishing a new voice call between the calling and called parties.